Officials: Husband of Assembly speaker's chief of staff arrested on drug charges

The husband of state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s chief of staff appeared in federal court Monday to answer charges that he played a role in bringing as much as 3 kilos of cocaine from Jamaica into the country through JFK Airport last June, officials said.

Orlando Dennis, 31, of the Bronx, was arrested Monday at the airport on a charge of conspiracy to import cocaine and he appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom in Brooklyn, according to the office of U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Richard P. Donoghue.

He was released on a $150,000 bond signed by his wife, Jevonni Brooks-Dennis, who is chief of staff for Heastie, the powerful Democratic legislator from the Bronx. Dennis’ sister is expected to co-sign the bond later this week, officials said. If convicted, officials said, Dennis faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison.

“At this time we just have a general comment that he is not guilty and we’ll defend him against the charge,” said attorney Calvin Scholar of Manhattan, who represents Dennis. “At this point we’re just waiting for more information from the government.”

The alleged scheme dates to June 7 when, after a Caribbean Airlines flight arrived from Montego Bay, no one claimed off the luggage carousel a “brown, soft-sided roller bag with a purple bandanna tied around the handles.”

The package aroused suspicion and, according to the criminal complaint against Dennis, Customs and Border Protection officers opened it and found three bricks that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials said was cocaine — a stash with a street value of $100,000.

In August, authorities charged two men who they claim are conspirators with Dennis. One of the two was an employee of Swissport, which provides airport ground and cargo handling services.

The criminal complaint filed by Homeland Security Investigator Angel Martinez said one of the men was observed in an employee-only baggage handling room of JFK on June 7, and that he was on a cellphone talking at the time with the other alleged conspirator, who was in Jamaica, as checked bags were loaded onto a conveyor belt headed toward the baggage claim carousel.

Martinez’s complaint said that the co-conspirator may have missed the bag when it was placed onto a conveyor belt along with other checked luggage because it was loaded onto the belt “with the purple bandanna facing away from Co-Conspirator 1.”

Officials also said that Dennis had an “unusual volume of calls” between himself and the alleged co-conspirator who they believe was in Jamaica when the bag arrived in New York.

They also said that that second co-conspirator was in Jamaica from May through July of last year and that Dennis had traveled to Jamaica in May and returned to the United States one week before the bag arrived in New York.

Dennis was arrested Monday and CBP agents examined his cellphone and found exchanges between the two men, Martinez said.

“On the defendant’s phone, agents discovered a picture of the Bag and messages about the Bag between the defendant, Co-Conspirator 1 and Co-Conspirator 2 on June 7, 2019, from soon after Co-Conspirator 1 missed the Bag on the conveyor belt telling the defendant that there was a “big problem.’”

Martinez’s complaint said that Dennis waived his Miranda rights and told investigator that he knew Co-Conspirator 2 dealt with narcotics, and that he had sent money to Co-Conspirator 2, and that he knew that the bag was involved in “some kind of illegality” but that he “denied knowing that the Bag contained drugs.”